LEDs in Parallel - 12v

Thread Starter

Lewisjenkins1

Joined Jul 11, 2015
4
Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum so I apologize if this seems to be a question asked a lot.

I am planning a project to create LED stips to illuminate all the walls of my room.
I am just wondering however- how many LEDs can be connected in parallel on a power supply providing an output of 12v DC (600mA 6VA)? I plan to make 2 strips of 25m- with an LED every 10cm (Total of 250 LEDs per strip). Is this too many or is this possible?

At the moment I am connecting the LEDs to 510 ohm resistors in parallel.

Thanks in advance!
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
Welcome to AAC!
You'll need a bigger power supply.
What are the current rating and colour of the LEDs (white LEDs have a higher Vf rating than red)?
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
As a very crude estimate, you are talking about 50 watts of power...depending on how effectively the LEDs are arranged to achieve the best efficiency.
 

Boxy

Joined Jul 11, 2015
3
Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum so I apologize if this seems to be a question asked a lot.

I am planning a project to create LED stips to illuminate all the walls of my room.
I am just wondering however- how many LEDs can be connected in parallel on a power supply providing an output of 12v DC (600mA 6VA)? I plan to make 2 strips of 25m- with an LED every 10cm (Total of 250 LEDs per strip). Is this too many or is this possible?

At the moment I am connecting the LEDs to 510 ohm resistors in parallel.

Thanks in advance!
If the supply that you are going to use is 12v, 600mA max, then you can only add 30 leds on that power supply (with no safety factor). For your 250 Leds, you are going to need a power supply that can output > 5 amps @ 12 volts.

250 Leds * 20mA = 5 ampers (desired case, 1 led strip)

600mA/20mA = 30 Leds (with your supply)
 

Thread Starter

Lewisjenkins1

Joined Jul 11, 2015
4
Thanks for the support.

So if I obtain 2x 12v 5w power supplies, I will be able to correctly power said LED strips in separate circuits without a problem right?
If so I will replace my power supply.
 

Boxy

Joined Jul 11, 2015
3
Thanks for the support.

So if I obtain 2x 12v 5w power supplies, I will be able to correctly power said LED strips in separate circuits without a problem right?
If so I will replace my power supply.
No, you are going to need 60w+ Power supply for 1 strip.

250leds*20mA = 5 Ampers,

Reqired power in watts = 12v*5 = 60w
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
The specs on those LEDs are kind of wide resulting in numbers from 90 ohms to 150 ohms to run 3 LEDs in series. Better wait until they arrive and find out what their real voltage is so you don't run some at 20 ma and some at 5 ma. First guess would be 120 ohms in series with 3 LEDs. Do that 83 times using 1.66 amps at 12 volts. That's 19.92 watts.

and, no, 5 watts is NOT 5 amps. 5 amps times 12 volts is 60 watts.
My proposal uses less than 2 amps and just about 20 watts.

If you want to run one LED per each resistor, you would be better off buying a 5 volt power supply. 250 LEDs x 0.02 amps = 5 amps
total power = 25 watts.
 
Last edited:

Boxy

Joined Jul 11, 2015
3
The specs on those LEDs are kind of wide resulting in numbers from 90 ohms to 150 ohms to run 3 LEDs in series. Better wait until they arrive and find out what their real voltage is so you don't run some at 20 ma and some at 5 ma. First guess would be 120 ohms in series with 3 LEDs. Do that 83 times using 1.66 amps at 12 volts. That's 19.92 watts.

and, no, 5 watts is NOT 5 amps. 5 amps times 12 volts is 60 watts.
My proposal uses less than 2 amps and just about 20 watts.

+1 what has been said here.
 
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